While everyone goes on about Zenyatta being the "best horse ever"?

Jess. you make a very good point about Zenyatta's sire Street Cry. He went to stud somewhat unheralded. The Maktoums picked him to go to Dubai and prep for the Derby as one of their Godolphin horses, which took him out of the mainstream American racing scene. When he was injured and missed the Triple Crown, he became "yesterday's news" to the commercial American breeding market.

His pedigree was a tough sell. Although he's from the wildly-popular Mr. Prospector sire line, his sire Machiavellian elicits a response of "Machia-who?" from most horsemen this side of the Atlantic. This in spite of Machiavellian coming from the same female line as Northern Dancer, his second dam being Northern Dancer's half-sister Raise the Standard.

Street Cry's dam also has bloodlines that are not familiar to most American breeders. His dam's sire, Troy, was an awesome racehorse, an Epsom Derby winner and one of the best racehorses in England since 1960. But he died after just four seasons at stud. Helen Street, dam of Street Cry, was one of his best offspring but she was a performer at the classic distances, which doesn't do much for the commercial breeders here in the US who want brilliance and precocity.

All in all, selling Street Cry as a stallion was something of an uphill battle, but good stallions eventually sell themselves, and for sure Street Cry is one of the few stallions right now whose fee is likely to be going up, not down, in this economy.

The mares Street Cry got after Street Sense's championship season at two and Derby win at 3 were better than he'd been getting, and the foals from those mares are going to be racing in force starting next year (foals of 2008 and afterwards). It will be very interesting to see what kind of racehorses those foals make. His foals have a cumulative average earnings index of 3.04, with a comparable index for his mares of 2.17. There aren't many stallions that improve their mares' comparable index by more than a few tenths of a point; improving the CI by more than a point, especially when the CI is over 2, is astounding. That's Northern Dancer-type performance.

With regards to your comment about Makybe Diva relative to Zenyatta, all I can say is that Makybe Diva's owner was an awesome sportsman to keep his mare in training so she could win three Melbourne Cups. I can't blame any owner who wants to take his mare off the track to start producing babies, a mare has such a limited opportunity to produce offspring compared to a stallion. Makybe Diva has earned a spot among the immortals. No arguments there. But I think that Zenyatta deserves to be considered a star of the first-rank too, and I don't think that in any way diminishes Makybe Diva's greatness. They're both fabulous racehorses that we've been very lucky to see.

Yes, Street Cry was an amazing horse, and I believe was mentioned only briefly. Street Cry, winner of the 2002 Dubai World Cup, the 2002 Stephen Foster Handicap and runner up in the 2002 Whitney Handicap. He is an international shuttle stallion that stands at the Darley Studs in Australia and the US. Maybe more should of been mentioned on him..but it was Zenyatta's day to shine, so the focus was on her, as it rightly should be. Zenyatta had an amazing performance in the Breeders' Cup Classic yesterday, where she beat the best males in the world and with a career with an undefeated record. Under huge anticipation on what would happen in The Classic, made her the talk of the town. Cannot deny her, or her amazing sire is certain. I'm happy with her accomplishments, and, as for the future.. well....the future is yet to be seen.

:)

I never heard of Zenyatta before but i heard a little bit about her sire Street Cry.

The best Mare i ever saw with the best form has to be Makybe Diva and the next best Sunline,a little bias yes (because i am an Aussie of course) but really they were outstanding mares.

So if Zenyatta is not the best mare ever then how can she be the best horse ever?

How would Zenyatta go against Light Fingers?

I'm yet to be convinced by Street Cry's suitability as a sire in Australia. The bulk of the stock racing don't appear to me to be up to metropolitan standard to justify such a stud fee.

Having a look through his stats as a sire here, a 15% win S/R may be acceptable but the bulk of his winners have come at the lower end of the prize money scale and at a much lower class of race.

http://formguide.cyberhorse.com.au/index.php/Stati...

The stock appear to be good weight carriers, so racing on as older horse shouldn't be a problem. Lack of middle-distance and staying types.

Sunline would have made a mess of Zenyatta, that stallion-like thing would have left Zenyatta's owners with a very broken animal, very quickly.

The best stallions always seem to race on as older horses, many rushed off to stud as two and three year olds, before they get a chance to diminish their stud value, turn out to be ordinary. The exception are those forced by injury, and this is a small minority.

i agree, Sunline won 33 races , most at the top level against all comers.

Makybe diva won 3 melb cups, only horse to ever do it, and carried top weight.

If Zenyatta wins another 20 races then she may qualify for best ever.

the sire is having a great run .

There's no such thing as the best horse ever. There are races around the world from 800 metre's to 8000 metre's and i guarantee that no horse cold consistently win over that range of distances.

Your reasoning is totally askew and absurd. Back in the day the purses were miniscule compared to todays purses, therefore money earned is comparing oranges to apples. The best race horses of all time are: 1. Secretariat, 2. Zenyatta, 3. Affirmed, and 4th Spectacular Bid.

Zenyatta has nothing left to prove! 14 out of 14! She deserves to retire.

zenyatta can get down and lick Typhoon tracey's butt, typhoon is the best 1400-1600m mare on the planet right now

he is a quick horse thought